The US military has released the first footage of Marine artillery striking ISIS in Syria

US Marines have been on the ground in
Syria since March, when a detachment from an amphibious task
force arrived in the country, where they joined US
special-operations forces to support US partner forces.

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The Marine units deployed to Syria included elements of an
artillery battery that can fire 155-millimeter shells from M777
Howitzers.

The military has already released
footage and photos of Marines
in Syria firing their howitzers in support of local coalition
partners during their advance on Raqqa, ISIS' self-declared
capital in northwest Syria.

"The Marines have been conducting 24-hour all-weather fire
support for the Coalition's local partners, the Syrian Democratic
Forces," the Defense Department said at the time that footage was
released.

During the first week of July, the US military released the
first footage of Marine artillery units striking an ISIS target
on May 14, destroying what the Defense Department called an ISIS
artillery position in support of Syrian Democratic Forces.

The M777 howitzer has a range of 15 to 25 miles, and the
artillery units in Syria have moved at least once to support the
ongoing fight against ISIS there, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert
Neller told Military.com
in April.

"The fight evolves, so they're moving to where they can
best provide support based on the capability of the weapons
system," Neller said. "The
commanders there understand the capability, and they'll
reposition them as required in order to provide the fire support
and other effects they need to do to make the campaign
successful, ultimately."

source

Sgt. Matthew Callahan/US Marine Corps

Marine artillery units previously deployed to Iraq to
support the fight against ISIS there were set up in a fixed position -
though they came under
fire just hours into their deployment in March 2016.

US forces in Syria are aiding local partner forces in what
Defense Secretary James Mattis has called an "annihilation
campaign," seeking to surround and destroy ISIS fighters -
foreign fighters in particular - "so we don't simply transplant
this problem from one location to another," Mattis told
reporters in May.

caption

Defense Secretary James Mattis, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford at a briefing on the campaign to defeat ISIS, May 19, 2017.

source

Thomson Reuters

Mattis "asked me and the military chain-of-command to make
a conscious effort not to allow ISIS fighters to just flee from
one location to another," Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Defense News
in June.

"Our commanders on the ground have tried to meet that goal
of annihilating the enemy in order to mitigate the risk of these
terrorists showing up someplace else."

Fighting to retake Raqqa has already begun, and over
2,000 ISIS
militants are thought to remain there.

US special-operations forces are already working with Arab
and Kurdish partners to vet and train a
force to secure the city during and after the effort to oust
ISIS.Questions remain about how Raqqa and the
surrounding area will be secured, as well as about how territory
wrested from ISIS around Syria will be divided among the various
factions operating in the country.